@Vector set close to Ankyra Sound. I'd also like this to be my first Warden thread, if that is okay.
Caiaphas had spent all morning coursing through the redraw and gorged seaweed, dejected and left high along the strand in the height of low tide. She nosed through a large vein of swollen seaweed, her slender muzzle retracting sharply with a surprised yip as a crab rose from the rubble with a pincer upheld in challenge.
With a grunt she swatted the thing with a furious forepaw, her expression dark as she watched the crustacean skitter across the sand. Resuming her inspection, she pushed past a patch of slimy gulfweed and shrilly exclaimed as she found an expansive and wholly intact conch with jagged and formidable thorns and a beautiful rose pink gossamer sheen.
Proudly she picked up the thing, uncaring of the unfortunate whelk that resided in it. She pivoted and trotted back towards Ankyra Sound where she had a small cache of treasures tucked quietly away in a dank and secluded grotto.
Quote: I definitely don't mind. Thank you, and sure, go for Warden. :P.
Set before stepping on Noct Bypass lands and meeting Dante.
Vector had just put over 30 miles between him and his previous human 'owners' as he continued his seemingly tireless full sped lope to the dunes that bordered the sea he had arrived by boat, on. Yet, the pier was alot farther west, the recon's mental compass had informed him. And this sandy area was very much so unoccupied. Besides the dark figure which he had just witnessed strike a crawling crustation with a tar colored paw. Staying as still as the most unmovable of stones, he watched the wolf from afar, with alert emerald eyes.
Vector knew he wasn't downwind of her, so she would smell his scrent eventually, but until then, he recorded her movements, taking notice as she picked up a large spikey object that glinted in the sunlight. A stone? A rock? The russian was curious. And unfortunately, he couldn't pick up any information of the far off creature, due to his unlucky location, with unlucky wind direction.
The smaller lupine took the newfound sharp speared object, and began taking it's dark body to a farther destination. Vector's mind told him to not follow, that he had no ties to this stranger, and that such curiosities could get him killed. However, his training that he had endured for his years at his homeland, and his ability to not be caught unless desired, had won out. So he followed.
Vector padded across the sand, the dark tan crystals muffling any movement. He continued his trek, but in his haste, he forgot one thing, just as swiftly as he had previously noted it : he was upwind of the wolf.
A heady scent permeated the persistent brine and Caiaphas froze, hackles bristled and her blackened gums lifted from between the conch.
With her body halted she arched her spiked neck, her torn ears laced back and her feral eyes scouring the blandness of the strand for the intruder. She rolled her head backwards and pivoted her savage muzzle in the direction of the scent -- yet did not see the male.
With a growl she resumed pace, pulling closer to the Sound's borders and closer to her cache of prideful, inordinate objects. The grotto she stayed in was just outside of the territory -- and with a dart she disappeared behind a black slab of stone that marked the entry of her cave. She waited with the conch on the stone floor, her breath baited -- the scent grew stronger and once she thought she heard the footfall of the male she flew out from the darkness like a drunken banshee, a high shriek erupting from her ghastly muzzle and her wicked jaws splayed in formidable territorial aggression. If she was lucky, Vector would have only just gotten abreast the stone she disappeared behind -- and hopefully, her erratic and unpredictable eruption would keep him at bay.
The moment the dark wolf had dissappeared behind the bolder slab, he had taken that opportunity to sniff the paw prints that the black figure had left behind. His calculative brain had swiftly sorted the information.
Female. Unwed. Packless. Young. Yearling. Medium light build.
He glanced nearby, his emerald gaze straying to a piece of driftwood that lay sprawled in a dune. A few specks of obsidian hairs clung to it, confirming the coat color of the wolf.
Then he heard the sound of a ferocious roar, it echoing throughout the walls of the rock crevice that housed the wolf. Immediately, he leapt back from the unknown sound, his darkly riveted spines and hackle fur raised, his shining white ivories flashing their form in the bright rays. His chest was prepared to release a snarl, yet he held the loud beast within as the appearance of the creature who made the roar happened to be before him.
Vector backed up a respectable distance, his cold analytical green irises never leaving the femmora before him. He stayed silent, his crouch defensive, his firm and bulging muscles, the twitching pistons that awaited his command of fight or flight.
The females behavior would determine his next move.
When Caiaphas rounded the boulder all hellfire and calamitous, the male recoiled -- and the several steps that he placed between them caused her blazing malice to slightly recede. She slowed to a trot and lifted her chin up haughtily, the harsh ridge of hackles along her spiny back still uplifted in tameless rifts.
He did nothing to reciprocate her act of aggression, and she regarded the agouti male coldly, the conch all but forgotten. She did not advance any further, but her body language stated clearly he was not allowed to come any further.
"You tred close to the Sisters' enclave. State your business, rube." She spoke with great courage and conviction -- and to an outsider it may have been a comical sight; the lanky, wispy little wretch seemed almost too skeletal and scraggy to bear any real threat.
Another english speaker, but one who held more charecter to her, moreso than the kind-nice-and forgiving ones who roamed the Wilds.
That was much more appreciated to the russian.
Vector had never left his position, but his voice came after a second's pause.
"I explore the lands in an effort to find a place of respite. I saw another soul, and followed."
The words were intricately weaved, his russian accent present in the few among many.
Vector had his gaze locked upon the smaller statured female, his gems studying, wondering of her origins, though the wolf had stated nothing of his curiousity.
When the male spoke Caiaphas nearly wheeled back, her slanted and half torn ears laced intricately back upon her skull when the thick accent the male boasted besieged her. A scoff was issued from her angular mouth as if his dialect offended her -- and coldly she stared him right back, her posture unwavering.
"Well, this soul does not want company." She rebuked with a dull snarl, uncaring if the male was significantly stronger and much larger than her. Astutely she studied his plaintive yet winsome muzzle, the copper that bent down it and the sharp contrast of seafoam in his gaze. In a way his markings reminded her of Psamathe, though she found the female too be much more aesthetically pleasing.
While she did not soften her resolve, she made motion to speak again. "Where are you coming from? The Sisters could use strength in their ranks." Blunt and without simpering -- an invitation one could take or leave that would have no affect on her.
When the tar coated femme had no hesitation with rejecting his appearance, Vector had double less hesitation of leaving. He began to do so, turning and taking a pad forward in the opposed direction of his short met company.
Yet the girl halted him, her words catching his interest. The recon heeded them, curious as to the second mention of these 'Sisters'.
He turned back to the luminous orbed female, adding the note of question to his words.
"May you explain such a congregation? "
He turned fully to her, then sat, hoping to give her the impression that he had given her a bit of respect and trust, when in truth, he was in a better position to react physically, if need be.
Inwardly the small wretch bristled as the man pedaled away - her haughty eyes cold and lacking any sort of liquid warmth. She would have found the gesture insolent -- but it was apparent he had second thoughts which slightly melted her bitter resolve. Yet, he did not answer her inquiry.
He seemed interested; he even perched in front of her and she offered an ugly smile that did not reach those hiemal yellow eyes. He sat coiled like some puma - a defensive posture in which Caiaphas was all too familiar.
She stood, her posture still unremitting. "I may not." She answered sharply, her tongue laced with saccharine sounding sarcasm. "The Sisters forbid it. Now, I asked you a question. Who are you?"
Swiftly, the agouti answered, his desire to know these mysterious band of females growing by each unanswered second.
"I hail from Russia, Motherland of infinite cold, winters that freeze hearts, and snatch lives, with no mercy."
Vector gazed at the girl who steeled her will against his own. She herself, was a spectical, having courage before a wolf who was almost twice her muscle mass.
"Now may I recieve a light hint to this group that may like strength on their side?", he questioned, his words hanging in the space between them, waiting for their own admission.
In his thick accent he painted a world unknown to her - Russia she did not know -- nor did she know the endless and interminable grey sea he must have traversed to stand so proudly before her. But she knew cold -- she knew the cold that slipped through veins and turned blood thick and frothy; she knew cold that nipped the toes and cold that turned ears black with ice-plague. She knew the cold that set on sleeping bodies and crept through their lungs and froze every ventricle and capillary until their soul relinquished from their bodies.
She smiled. The agouti continued to speak.
"You may." She observed his stout physique and wondered if the sisters would approve of him -- and a faint chortle issued from her muzzle as she mentally pitted him against Atlas -- a wolf even he dwarfed with his stature and masculinity. "The Sisters are a large group of females with appointed male consorts." The large part was a lie. She was sure the numbers now were below four. Stinging truth - unfortunate as it was.
"They have set claim to the coast behind me. They worship the ocean - the mother of the earth." Past that, she really didn't know what the freaks did. "Interested?"
At the words of frigid temperatures, he saw a flicker in the ominous eyes...did he detect understanding?
Again he witnessed as she sized him up, taking in store what his body was composed of. Knowing his build was of one who handled many challenges life threw at him with ease, he did not shy away from her almost falcon like gaze. The recon considered the intellectual mass of the femmora, and figured she might have information that could have proved useful to him.
"Male consort?...A servant? " the flare sheathedmale inquired, putting a note of humble in his sentence.
When the male pieced together what was not all that veiled a suggestion, it elicited a dry sneer from the female.
Yes, servant she thought inwardly, though her outward aspect remained unchanged. She remained affirmative, refusing to let her guard down despite the male's lack of aggression. He was too close to Ankyra Sound and Caiaphas had too much at stake.
She coyly delivered a sidelong glance and the smile dissipated. His words did not seem outraged - perhaps the thick accent masked his incredulity -- but Caiaphas saw no notion of affront in his russet countenance.
"They are not quite servants. They are providers. Protectors. Consorts to a bevy of females who have no mates to call their own." The last part was her own imaginative spin on things -- and she gave him a suggestive look that carried with it an impish gleam in her yellow eyes.
"Interested?" There was a hint of hubris in her voice - a faint tinge of insufferable pride that she was a female and thus superior to males in this small and secret clan.
Such a intriguing concept that the wry female spoke to him. A group of females who desired male protection. He knew his body was up to such a task, and so much more, but the recon pondered whether selling his soul to a congregation of women could benifit him.
"It seems as though they hold authority high in their gender. How would such a consort act?"
Vector didn't disrespect the females intelligence, because his brain told him she knew what she said, and she only gave him crumbs of the entire cake. There must have been some shadows to the light.
let me know if you want me to change anything :D
Caiaphas could see the male was ruminating over the idea; the subtle shift of body language she had learned to study so efficiently seemed to suggest that perhaps, the male was receptive to the idea.
She paused, her dark countenance suddenly very serious. "Stay here." She spoke, her voice sheathing a quiet command. In truth it was a test to see if he was controllable to any degree -- with a dart the skeletal wretch swung around the large boulder and disappeared into the yawning mouth of the grotto.
She took her time, musing through several trinkets -- poking thoroughly over stacks of shattered bones, dessicated ferns -- the dried heap of some ugly and bitter root. Her nose sifted through the clutter until she found what she was looking for. Gingerly she closed her teeth around a pair of shriveled fungi -- their hoods half crushed and their stems intact.
She turned around and emerged from the den, sauntering towards him casually as if she had not just left him for several minutes to his own. If he had not moved, he would have passed her secret test.
She strode close until they were within kiss or kill distance, her frame tense and flighty. She deposited one split of the warped fungi at his feet and stepped back, the other half at her own feet. "A gift from the Sisters. The Mother has taken kindly to you, stranger - as have I. Eat this and I will tell you how a consort would act." And as if to dissipate any doubt, the sly creature quickly took her own portion in her jaws and worked the withered mushroom into a pulp.
Quote: its perfect, great wording. :)
At the sudden change of the word tone of the female, Vector felt as though he pushed a button. He couldn't decifer whether what he would reap from the action could be positive nor negative, yet he had felt an urge to hear the words to the scrawny femmora. She had a sense of wisdom about her, so he had given the wrath a sliver of his respect. Yet, the man didn't recognize the wolf in the sheep's clothing.
She had returned to his sight after he heard her dissappear into the dark depths of whatever unknown was in the cave. In her mouth, she held some sort of...thing..it looked edible, but the way she held it..so delicately..as if it was a thing to be careful with. This set his brain to full alert, but the curiosity held its portion of ground within the flare pelted russian, as well.
She had dropped a piece of what he could only discern as a bulb of some sort that had a stem..the color sickly looking. Yet it had no smell. He had studied it a bit, wary of the unknown object, until she had placed one at her own feet. She had claimed he was smiled down upon by a Mother of some sort. The russian couldn't tell whether to be grateful or disturbed. He knew nothing of this custom, so he had to follow through with the learning experience. Glupo, he was. So very foolish.
Vector had been unable to pinpoint what his mind was telling him about this thing at his paws, but if the female before him, the one who had given him a bit of knowledge of this subject he wished to know about, he assumed the gift would be have to be appreciated. The russet had observed her eat the object, so with a regal yet slow lowering of his thick crown, he cautiously picked the thing up, chewing it in his dagger lined mouth, trying to discern if it had a taste or not, filing it over his roughly calloused tongue, until he swallowed.
Caiaphas stifled a pleased giggle as the male finally accepted the meager offering. He lowered his head as if unsure, yet the mein in which he did so suggested some sovereign affinity. She watched, a grey gargoyle stone-still and unmoving.
It would take some time for the changes to elucidate; so willingly, Caiaphas tried her best to suppress his suspicion by engaging in some sort of dialogue. She swung her muzzle to the ocean and contemplated thoroughly her course of action: it all depended on how willing a partner he was going to be.
But Caiaphas sensed, that in some way, the male might be malleable enough -- or at the very least, out of his wits enough that she may kidnap him.
"Do you know the ocean? We are the children of it - the Sisters, her daughter. The consorts are their willing aides - some are profligates taken from the wild and others are borne by other consorts into the clan." She may have been breaking a cardinal rule, so openly discussing the Nereides' way. But Aktaie had not been seen in weeks and Caiaphas did not fear any repercussions. "Can you stand, friend?" The words were not nice and the tonal involvement in the word 'friend' seemed laced with sarcasm. Caiaphas had some experience with what they had just ingested -- and it was arguable that she was so brain-addled already that a little psilocybin would have made no difference.
It had been done. The thing had slid into his stomach, becoming one with him, and the moment he felt it within him, he cursed himself. Vector shouldn't have even come here. The manners, the stranger, the words, all attempted to blur. The russian righted himself visually, suddenly feeling uneasiness within his mind.
The dark ebony before him babbled answeres to his question, though his life was more at stake. His vision blurred yet again, and he had finally realized what had trespassed.
That damn girl had poisoned him.
His mind was flashing images before his eyes, warnings that he was shutting down, losing himself, failing the mission. He couldn't deny it. His strong resistance held out, long enough for him to attempt a shout at the girl, when his volume too, had been changed, into a whisper.
"What poison, is ..this..your dark magic, ..you witch..chto eto..ya ne budu.."
And with that, he lay immobilized upon the ground, his once strong and obedient legs refusing to obey him, no matter his will. His vivid emeralds dulled, the last sight they beheld being the black female he had foolishly trusted,before under closed lids, the world was painted black, and his cconscious slipped away.
She had been a wraith, these last few weeks; her devotion had been to both the Sea and the marking of this sacred place. Their numbers had dwindled, but Aktaie did not fear -- this meant they were only rid of those less committed to their divine purpose. If they returned, she would grant them harbor, provided their reasoning was commendable... If not, they would be punished. She had no use for those that were flighty, frightened by a brief and lulling tide.
But it was time, now, with their scent strong in the sound. It was time to make the lands surrounding the deep cut in the coast to tremble in wake of their might. With the song of one of her last remaining recruits - almost hilariously, one not of pure Nereides blood - rising into the air, her turquoise eyes flashed with an odd mixture of passion and mischief.
She arrived swiftly, bestowing the other female with a look that didn't quite hide her approval. Aktaie paid little heed to the male, but greeted the other expectantly, "Caiaphas?"
posting quickly out of turn because i think vector is still knocked out?
While Caiaphas waited she trotted around the small enclave, pushing seashells and tidying the mouth to her slovenly and illkept den. She was slightly nervous -- and with skittering eyes she checked on Vector repeatedly, tittering around him like some gangly carrion seeker.
She froze when she heard footsteps, pivoting with surprise in her step. Her hackles flared guiltily and her gaze darted to the male lying supine -- but it was with great relief that she saw it was Aktaie that approached and not some heathen she would have to dispatch for seeing too much. Somehow, in some skewed manner, it seemed easier for her to explain what she had done to her Alpha. Her gaze averted instantly from the beguilingly lean creature - and with great care she avoided the strong seafoam green of Aktaie's brilliant gaze.
"Salut, my lady." Caiaphas fussed, her yellow eyes watching the inert male with supreme caution. Her body flattened in deference to Aktaie's superior ranking and with a skit she rounded onto the male and pushed his limbs forward so Aktaie could better see her handiwork. "Our numbers grow small - this one, very able -- I told him just enough to entice him. Tch." She pulled back, thinly veiled and ingenuine concern on her muzzle. "Looks like the poor thing is asleep." She crooned, unsure of how Aktaie would react but secretly proud of what most would consider a reprehensible wrongdoing.
i post out of turn, too - sry! i'll make sure to pick back up tomorrow asap if i drop out.
Aktaie's gaze swept over to the male, watching his chest as it rose and fell. Most wolves would awaken in the presence of others speaking, so, and she smirked darkly at the implications. Perhaps it was the Moon's phase, or perhaps the dwindling numbers - but the matriarch felt wicked tonight, and reveled in it. If had been a female at their feet, the siren might have reacted differently, but this was how they collected their consorts.
Her eyes glittered as they returned to the other woman, the matriarch's respect for her growing with each new revelation.
"You have done well, child," she cooed, though there was no note of patronization in her tone; only pride, and the title was only tradition. This one would soon be a sister, Aktaie had no doubt.
"I am pleased to see how swiftly you have devoted yourself to our ways. Tell me of him, and your plans." This question, another small test; of devotion, of ambition.
Quote: Yea its perf fine, he was knocked out. Not a prob. :D.
The russian swam amongst a sea of dark, the thick silence swallowing him, suffocating him, and he found he was unable to swim to the surface, any surface...he could not move at all.
He was losing the battle.
Then he saw her, his little sister, the dear Natalyia, his twin, his life.
His life line. The redish dark wolfess beckoned him, her chant constant and insisting.
Podoydi! Bol' shoy Brat! Come on! Big brother!
The russet swam, he kicked, he tried, and he was almost there,...she was right there,...she..
His emeralds opened to the world, but sideway. The russian woke up to the sight of two females standing infront of his frame. One he recognized, the other, not at all.
That damned scrawny devushka. Her dark magic.
He had listened the the girls, saying nothing, believing his silence to prove appropriate in the mist of the conversation, not for their benifit, but for his own, as he was trying to understand their speaking, the subjects, the ideas. The recon was learning.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! i had a post WRITTEN AND LOST IT!! sorry for wait HUFF i was 2 mad to write for a while STOMP STOMP STOMP also this is very short bc i am very huffy about what just happened LMAO
Caiaphas would have preened herself proudly were it not for the seriousness of her company. She answered Aktaie's accolade with an appreciative nod, her ears gently parted to the side in deference.
Before she could answer much of Aktaie's question the male stirred -- Caiaphas stepped towards him as if some protective sentinel, though she made no motion to stifle his uprising. She was surprised by Aktaie's inquiry, and it showed in her tone as she spoke. "He did not give me his name - but he is not from here. Foreign, I think - somewhere north in the cold across the Mother Sea. He seems subservient, you know -- I told him what he needed to know and spared the details but he seems to fit a consort's duty well. As for my plans, they are not mine to make, but yours. He is for the sisters, if you see fit."
And here she was, talking about Vector as if he were some token to be passed off without say -- she knew soon enough he would object in some way to how he had been treated.
I'm so sorry for stalling on this! I kept thinking I was waiting for someone else to post, and then failed all over the place when I finally realized it was my turn. D:
The matriarch could see that she had startled the dark female, and it was that realization that stilled the surge of disappointment that threatened to overtake Aktaie. For all her loyalty, Caiaphas was still relatively knew to the ways of the Nereides. Ambition was clear in her actions, at least, and when they were all settled enough to return to a life of ritual, Aktaie was certain the woman would quickly find herself as a priestess of their ways.
She nodded in acknowledgement, eyes glancing over to the stirring male. To the darker woman, she said,
"We will discover soon enough what the Drowned One has in store for this male, if anything. He should be brought back to the Sound."